


Unaccompanied Minor

by AcceleratedStall



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Gen, Mid-Canon, Slice of Life, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 23:05:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15302013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcceleratedStall/pseuds/AcceleratedStall
Summary: The other members of S.E.E.S. have gone to Kyoto, and Ken is restless.





	1. 17 November - Evening

**Author's Note:**

> This fic uses the female main character from P3P, named Minako.

The shadows stretch long as Ken walks up the steps to Iwatodai Dormitory. The front door is tall and heavy, for him, at least - he had to throw his hips into it a little to get it all the way open. Kicking off his soccer shoes at the door, he feels nothing, which is actually a little unusual. Normally there was someone in the lounge, or watching from the stair, or something like that, and Ken would feel their gaze as he entered the building - sometimes pitying, sometimes inquiring, sometimes friendly. He scrawls “Amada” and the time quickly on the otherwise blank sign-in sheet, and deposits his schoolbag on the table.

The rest of the dorm had left for Kyoto midmorning, giving Ken a chance to say goodbye before he had to leave for school. He’d seen Kyoto on all kinds of different movies and TV shows; it looked like fun, at least when ninjas were fighting all over it. The night before he’d asked Minako to bring him back some namayatsuhashi. His teachers all said that the adult thing to do was to be grateful for whatever she ended up bringing, even if it was nothing at all, and he’s really trying. Really.

The silence of the empty lounge shouldn’t throw him off his routine, but it does. On most days he’d be trying to get his homework out of the way - asking Minako or Fuuka for help if it’s going slowly, or maybe staring over Junpei’s shoulder while he plays video games if he finds himself needing a break. Tonight, though, he is by himself. Couldn’t he do what he wanted for a change?

For some reason, a strange mental image comes to Ken’s mind. A while back he’d read a foreign comic book at a relative’s house - French, or Belgian, or something. A dog was confronted by whiskey dripping out of his master’s pack. A “devil” version of the dog appeared in red with horns urging him to drink, while an “angel” adorned with wings and a halo advised him to leave it be. Likewise, Devil-Ken wants to spend the night doing everything any of the other members of S.E.E.S. has ever told him not to do, even if it doesn’t make much sense. Jump on the sofas! Watch six hours of television straight! Dance on the roof of the building! Eat everything in the fridge! Play Junpei’s RPG without even making a separate save file! Angel-Ken says that’s childish, and while S.E.E.S. might be gone, there are still eyes upon him, even if he isn’t sure whose. Mitsuru? Minako? His third grade teacher?

The dilemma doesn’t resolve right away, and Ken finds himself spending a minute walking away from his homework, then to his homework, then to the sofa, then to nowhere in particular. By the television, he nearly steps on Koromaru. Oh, that’s right, Koromaru is still here. He’s sleeping, the tips of his paws twitching gently in some mysterious dog dream. Even Devil-Ken wouldn’t stand for waking him. A magazine on the television catches Ken’s attention. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to just look at the TV listings, right?

It takes a little while for anything to catch Ken’s eye. Interviews with leading psychologists on the news, a nature documentary about the platypus, some late-night anime with a really strange premise, a bunch of sappy romance movies, and Neo Featherman. That last one could be promising - ten back-to-back episodes starting at 10:00 PM.

He’d feel better about watching Featherman if he takes care of his homework first, Ken finally decides. It’s not that difficult tonight, but he has trouble staying focused. It’s so quiet, and Featherman will be on. After every problem he looks up from the worksheets and watches the glow on the dorm windows from the headlights of passing cars outside. The pauses between problems get longer and longer. At about 9:30 Ken finally gives up and gets up to take Koromaru for a walk. Feather Parakeet always says to be kind to animals. Koro hears Ken getting out the leash and doggie bags and rouses himself, beating Ken to the door by about three paces.

Koromaru’s enthusiasm is infectious, and Ken runs with him to the shrine. Not for the first time, Ken wishes he was a dog. There’d be so much less to worry about. Then again, Koromaru has a Persona, and no one with a Persona could be worry free. Still, for now, running in great big circles around the shrine playground, S.E.E.S.’ dog is the picture of joy. From a distance, Ken must be too.

Both of them are panting as Ken heaves open the dorm’s front door. He collapses on one of the couches and turns on the television just as Feather Hawk is thanking the show’s sponsors, and Koromaru settles himself down someplace nearby. Time for a night of kung-fu, low-rent special effects, and randomly selected facts about birdlife.

Ken has counted six instances of the Slime Minions’ arms being visible through seams in their costumes and Feather Falcon is about to deliver a solid roundhouse kick to his evil twin’s face when the television abruptly goes dead. Ken is frustrated for just a moment, before he remembers. The Dark Hour is here. How did he miss that?

Ken had tried to tell himself that the Dark Hour wasn’t scary anymore. When he climbed Tartarus with S.E.E.S., he decided that it was a bit like a big math test; yes, it was tough, but as long as he was tougher, there was nothing to worry about. And they all tell him he’s pretty tough now, even Mitsuru and Akihiko.

It’s different alone in the dorm, though. No one is here to tell Ken he’s doing okay; it’s just him, and the darkness. Drawn in black, the shapes of the lounge furniture are equal parts familiar and strange. There isn’t even a whole lot of the green Dark Hour moonlight; it’s a new moon tonight. So everything should be fine; no Shadows should be around outside Tartarus unless Ken goes looking for them. That’s what they all told him when he joined S.E.E.S.

Why’d they even bother? He and his mother hadn’t been in Tartarus when… Ken can feel his mind fall into familiar loops. He tries to stop himself, but all he can hear is “why me?” and “if only…” Looking past the dead television set, there are no more headlights flitting past the windows. Only the ghosts, and they’re closing in. His mother, far too still; the gleam in Takaya’s eye; Shinjiro standing tall but broken above him.

It’s all Ken can do to run up the stairs to his room, and fall onto the pillow. The others can’t hear him sob now, and at some point he lost track of whether that was a good or a bad thing.

Time is a slippery thing in the Dark Hour. Ken isn’t sure how long he cries, but at some point as he’s slowing down he hears a gentle “woof” at the door. He lets Koromaru in, and runs his hands through the dog’s white fur. It has never felt softer.


	2. 18 November - Morning

Ken wakes up to find Koromaru still lying next to him in his room, dozing seemingly untroubled by the morning sunlight pouring through the window. Ken’s cell phone is blinking on the desk; it seems someone sent him a message last night. A photo pops up on the little screen; Minako’s grinning face, accompanied by Junpei and that Ryoji guy crossing souvenir wooden swords in the background. Ken considers saying something in reply about how little time it took for them to reach the gift shop, but can’t quite find the right words. Maybe after breakfast.

The trip downstairs to get ready for school is more eventful than usual. Coming out of the hallway, Ken freezes in his tracks - someone’s talking down there. He can’t make out the exact words but those are definitely voices. Pulse quickening, he gingerly moves to the top of the staircase, hoping for an unobtrusive glance into the lounge. His fingers tighten around his cell phone - if he has to call the police, will whoever is downstairs hear him? The voices continue unabated, and Ken is able to hear a complete phrase.

_“The current exchange rate is now 108 yen to 1 USD. In other economic news this morning…”_

Weird, the television is on. Ken never actually switched it off last night, he realizes, so it came right back to life after the Dark Hour ended. Confidence restored, Ken walks downstairs to the kitchen. 

Although it’s just as empty as the lounge, in the kitchen Ken can sort of hear his dormmates’ voices still. There’s a note taped to the refrigerator, warning that _“the next person to touch my Hagakure leftovers is a DEAD MAN. - Junpei.”_ There’s a shelf full of tea boxes, with exotic labels printed in multiple languages. In the trash bin is an empty bottle with big shouty text on it, something about muscle growth and rejuvenation, surrounded by broken chopsticks. Little notes and bookmarks stick out of a dog-eared recipe book. Ken sets up the toaster for himself and pours a bowl of dog food for Koromaru.

As Koromaru eats, Ken goes through the kitchen a second time to make a cup of coffee. He doesn’t really need it, but he only just learned how, so figures it is worth the practice. A couple weeks ago, Minako had found him in the lounge taking a sip of black coffee in a foam cup from the convenience store. Ken could tell she’d seen him blanch at the taste, but she said nothing; instead, she offered to teach him how to make his own.

So Ken knows the process but it doesn’t quite flow yet. Each tool he needs to get out of the cupboard, and each step afterwards, takes a little extra thought. Was the stirrer he needed in the second drawer down, or the third? Obviously it isn’t in the first, because there’s nothing in there but partially disassembled circuit boards and headphones, for some reason.

Having toast with it helps the coffee down, at least a little bit. Ken figures that if he taught himself to fight with a spear, he can teach himself to like coffee, eventually. He checks the clock on his phone; there’s just enough time to take Koromaru for a quick walk outside, no further than a couple blocks, before he needs to be on the way to school. Just as he’s finishing that thought, Koromaru is right there beside him, tail wagging. Are dogs telepathic? Being a dog would be really great if that was the case. Or maybe kind of awful, Ken isn’t quite sure.

Once outside Koromaru is brimming with energy, walking Ken more than Ken is walking him, pulling him down the sidewalk. They come to a stop at a street corner just long enough for Ken to cough out a quick “Thank you, Koromaru” as he catches his breath, and then they’re off again.


	3. 18 November - Evening

After soccer practice everyone goes to Wild-Duck Burger. It’s a rule, or something, and Ken is happy enough to follow it this evening. He gets his tray, with burger, fries, and a promotional action figure from the kid’s menu - he’d rather not have that, but asking the lady at the counter to withhold it would just be a bother. He sets down the food on a small vacant table by the windows. After practice is over it feels like he doesn’t know what to say to his classmates anymore, and they’re so noisy. As it turns out this action figure is kind of nice, much better quality than they usually give out at this type of place. The plastic is decent quality, the figure's costume is well detailed, and each little limb has three fully articulated joints. It’d be weird to just leave it on the table when he’s done with his meal, so he sticks it in a pocket.

Back at the dorm, Ken is at a bit of a loss. Finishing his homework goes fast enough, but watching television didn’t go so well last night, and there’s no Featherman marathon this time. Well, when S.E.E.S. isn’t climbing Tartarus, the best way to deal with the Dark Hour is just to sleep through it, Ken figures.

“How to get yourself to fall asleep when you’re having trouble? I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that myself,” Minako had said to him when asked prior to the school trip, adopting a pseudo-sagely posture. ”Reading helps me sometimes, but not always. The best thing to if you’re anxious might be to exercise hard. Like, harder than normal, really exhaust yourself… unless I need you for Tartarus the night after, I guess.” she added sheepishly.

 Minako’s advice has to be worth a try, she’s right about a lot of things. Ken doesn’t want to read, though, there was too much of that with his schoolwork today. What would be good exercise? Maybe practicing his spear handling will work. He’s certainly ready to sleep like a log after getting down from Tartarus on nights when they go there. The weapons are all locked away somewhere with the rest of S.E.E.S. gone, but that’s okay, the long-handled scrub brush he tried using a few nights ago will do the job. Finding room to swing it properly is trickier though - the purple bruise on his shin attests to that.

Ken goes through all the rooms in the dorm in his head, and in each of them he finds a reason why it would be dangerous to swing a long stick around there. There’d be plenty of room down at the shrine, and there usually isn’t anyone there, but “usually” is a major sticking point - if anyone he knows, or even anyone he doesn’t know, sees him stabbing invisible foes with a cleaning brush - he shudders at the possibility.

 Finally he selects the dorm roof. There’s probably a rule against going up there, since the door is always locked, but space won’t be an issue, and it must be okay if it’s S.E.E.S. business. After all, Minako tells him that before he joined, they broke into the school after nightfall on a S.E.E.S. mission once, and there have to be all kinds of rules against that. Key in one hand and brush in the other, Ken climbs the four flights of stairs.

 There’s nothing very interesting out on the roof. That’s a good thing, Ken supposes, since that means nothing to distract him. Apparently, before he lived at the dorm, Minako and Yukari had a big fight with a Shadow up here, but if so not a trace remains of the battle. Again, that’s probably for the best. Ken hefts his scrub brush and imagines targets around him. Left, right, thrust, parry, swing, turn, again, again and backwards this time.

 The scrub brush feels a little off - the center of gravity isn’t in the same place as his spear, or something - but Ken wills himself to continue. Finally his legs are stiff, his lungs burn, and Ken stumbles down until he’s flat on his back, staring straight upward into the night sky. The stargazing isn’t very good in Iwatodai - nothing like a couple years ago when he lived with a relative in the countryside - but even so, fainter stars gradually reveal themselves the longer Ken looks.

 Once he starts getting cold, Ken goes back inside, leaning the cleaning brush against the wall and locking the door to the roof. Again he collapses on his bed, but this time he sleeps soundly.


	4. 19 November - Morning

For a second time, Ken’s phone is blinking with an unread message as he awakens. He pulls himself upright and stretches a little, then takes a look. There are two messages this time - one from Minako, and one from Junpei. Ken opens Junpei’s message first - a photograph. At one end of the frame is Minako, looking fiercely determined - or, as fiercely determined as one _can_ look while holding a ping-pong ball and paddle. At the other is Akihiko, with his arms folded and a can of Mad Bull balanced on his head. Were they doing some kind of William Tell thing? Judging by his expression this clearly wasn’t Akihiko’s idea.

 Minako’s message requires much less interpretation. She simply says, “ _We will keep sending these until you laugh._ ”

He’s alone as usual, but the walk to school is a little more fun today.


	5. 19 November - Evening

As expected now, Ken receives neither a glance nor a greeting as he returns to the dorm. Instead, his cell phone blinks and beeps. Junpei again, and it’s another picture. They’re at a table in a restaurant, one of the ones with the long booth seating. Ryoji and a blond foreign-looking student that Ken doesn’t recognize seem to be building a replica of one of Kyoto’s temples with chopsticks. At the left of the frame Aigis is reaching a hand towards it, and near as Ken can tell, Minako would prefer it very much if she didn’t do that.

As Ken is taking all of this in on his phone’s little screen, another message comes through, from Minako. It’s a picture of the same table, covered in a disorganized pile of broken chopsticks, along with a caption of sorts - “ _I did everything I could. =(_ "

Ken pauses briefly to mourn the loss to Japan’s cultural heritage. He puts away his phone, and the quiet of the dorm lounge returns. Anyway, time to take Koromaru for a walk.

Paying no heed to the chilly night air, Koromaru bounds up the stairs to the shrine. At least keeping up with him keeps Ken warm. At the top of the stairs is a surprise - they don’t have the shrine all to themselves tonight. There’s a rather haggard looking young man under one of the streetlamps, sitting with a pen in one hand and notebook on his lap. He seems unconcerned by the arrival of Koromaru and Ken, and as the dog runs around the shrine playground, Ken takes a closer look at the man. His hair is pale - Ken can’t tell if it has been dyed or not. His body language suggests fatigue, with drooping shoulders, and legs splayed and limp. His striped shirt is baggy over a thin frame, and what little Ken can see of the man’s face looks gaunt and hollow. Only his hands show life - the man writes in his notebook with quick and ceaseless motions. And forget unconcerned at Ken and Koromaru’s presence, the two of them might as well not even be here at all. Even another breath of cold wind, ruffling the pages of the man’s notebook, seems to have little noticeable effect. _Focus._

His teachers would be happy to see that much focus from their students, Ken thinks. But he remembers what it feels like, what it was that he was so desperate to do, to finish, and can’t share their imagined optimism. Focus can be a little scary. When Koromaru appears by Ken’s feet, he’s happy to leave the shrine.

Back at the dorm, Ken puts on the television again, but it’s hard to enjoy it when he keeps turning away from the screen to look at the time. There has to be a better way to spend the evening. Ken remembers that there was one more thing he wanted to check out with the dorm to himself, and with a start realizes that, by this time tomorrow, the rest of S.E.E.S. will be back. With unearned trepidation he climbs the stairs to the dorm’s fourth floor.

On each corner of the command room are rows of bookshelves. Ken is a much better reader than the rest of his class, but the books in here are genuinely impossible. They’re the type of book where the last three-quarters of the pages are nothing but footnotes and references to other, equally obtuse volumes, and the author throws around words like cognition and superego while giving them his own, unstated but specific meanings. No matter, the books aren’t why Ken is here. On one wall stands an imposing row of consoles, buttons, switches, and screens. Ken has only tried to touch it once, during the meeting where he officially joined S.E.E.S. Mitsuru told him, politely but firmly, that he was not permitted to use that equipment. Every now and again, the “command room consoles” would subsequently be mentioned in conversation. Whenever this happened, Ken noticed, Minako’s body language would suddenly get tense, though she never spoke a word on the subject. Curiosity ate away at him, and tonight he would satisfy it, or at least try.

The consoles grow more intimidating as Ken sits down and looks at them more closely. Almost none of the buttons and switches are labeled. There’s a keyhole, and some speakers, and a microphone. After a moment Ken notices a black toggle switch, one of the few to have some sort of description. It just says “START” so Ken figures he should flip that one first. For a couple seconds, nothing happens, then Ken hears a “click” somewhere behind him. He turns around to see the ceiling fan spinning to life. What a disappointment.

He looks over the center console again. There’s a circular red button in the middle; Ken decides to try that one.

Immediately the silence of the command room is shattered by a piercingly loud alarm. Ken jumps out of his seat almost high enough to hit his head on the ceiling. He covers both of his ears, then removes one hand to try and find a way to turn the alarm back off. Mercifully, after about half a minute of frantic button pressing, the alarm ceases and the assault on Ken’s hearing ends.

So much for curiosity.


	6. 20 November - Morning

It’s Ken’s last morning before the remainder of S.E.E.S. returns, and there’s nothing to eat for breakfast. Ken opens every cabinet and cupboard, and finds a whole lot of different things that he didn’t know the others kept in the kitchen, but no bread, cereal, eggs, or even juice. Cursing himself for not buying anything at the convenience store the prior night, he weighs a shopping trip, but between that and feeding and walking Koromaru, he’ll be late for school. He’ll stop to eat somewhere on the way to class, he figures, though he’s a little short on ideas as to where.

Fortunately, it seems Mitsuru anticipated that. Before they left, she compiled for Ken a long list of names, addresses, and phone numbers; everything he would need, and quite a few things he most likely wouldn’t, while staying in the dorm by himself. The number for the hotel in Kyoto they’re staying at is here, along with three different emergency contacts, a taxicab service, school staff, and even a veterinarian for Koromaru. Of course there’s also a list of nearby places to eat here, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All very thoughtful, very meticulous, neatly typed and organized - and yet Mitsuru had been the only member of S.E.E.S. not to wish him goodbye in person before they left.

Ken doesn’t blame her though; he’s seen the look on her face during the last week or so, and recognizes it all too well. He is lost in thought as he goes down Mitsuru’s list, and the sound of his phone getting a new message is startling.

The message is a picture, sent by Minako; opening it up, he immediately recognizes Mitsuru. Odd coincidence. Yukari is waving some kind of souvenir doll in her face, and the camera has caught Mitsuru in the middle of a startled expression. Ken has never seen her make a face like that before; maybe, he thinks, that’s a good sign.

Getting to school on time ends up being a closer call than Ken thought. He’s still chewing on a piece of waffle as he slides into his seat in class. He reaches to shut off his phone, but another message comes in. It’s Minako again, and he opens it eagerly. This time, the picture is a little indistinct; several people in Gekkoukan High uniforms, some blurry brown animals in motion… is that a tongue licking the camera in the left corner? Luckily, a text message immediately follows to clarify what Ken is looking at. “ _God as my witness, one of the seniors tried to ride a deer yesterday.”_

 He almost chokes on the last of his waffle. Classmates turn to him with quizzical looks. He dashes off a message in reply, “ _okay, you win, I laughed at that one_ ,” just as the teacher enters the classroom.


	7. 20 November - Evening

S.E.E.S. piles in the front door just a few minutes after Ken gets back to the dorm from soccer practice. Minako cheerfully hands him his souvenir, Junpei promises him some “good stories,” Yukari glares at Junpei, Mitsuru is laughing, Koromaru is barking, and somehow all the noise is deafening - but not unwelcome.

Everyone settles down in the lounge after putting away their suitcases. Junpei and Akihiko are on one side of the room, Minako, Mitsuru, Yukari, and Fuuka take the other, and Ken detects some sort of pronounced yet unspoken tension between them, which is strange - didn’t people get over that sort of thing when they got older? He asks Aigis about it, but she only tells him that she has activated something called “ignore mode.” Maybe it’s best if Ken does too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Persona 3 occasionally breaks away from the player character's POV to show, for instance, what Strega is up to, but you never really see anything from the point of view of your other party members when the player character isn't around. I'm always interested to find work that explores that, which I suppose is why I wrote this.


End file.
